[soneca]

I agree. WhatsApp is by far the most popular app in Brazil (of all kinds, not only messengers). Yet…

- Its name is unpronounceable for 90% of its users (we short it to ”zap”)

- The word itself has unfamiliar letter combinations (“wh” and “pp”).

- The intended pun doesn’t work at all, since no one here uses “What’s up” (not even the 10% that understands English)

Similar to what happens with “Google” and “Facebook”, btw.

[LeoPanthera]

I'm a native English speaker and I didn't get the "pun" for years. Almost a decade, even.

"App" does not rhyme with "Up".

[Arch485]

> "App" does not rhyme with "Up".

It does if you're from Boston.

[crtasm]

But if you had heard people saying it like this for years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJmqCKtJnxM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whassup%3F

[bdjsiqoocwk]

Sure, but there are countries where the accent of people speaking English makes the pun very obvious. I wonder if the original WhatsApp people were foreigners.

[RugnirViking]

Same, and I just figured it out NOW. And I use it every day....

[com2kid]

> - The intended pun doesn’t work at all, since no one here uses “What’s up” (not even the 10% that understands English)

Well until you wrote this I never realized it was supposed to be a pun, and I'm a native English speaker...